Interventional cardiologists incorporate a variety of diagnostic tools during catheterization procedures in order to plan, guide, and assess therapies. These tools typically include optical coherence tomography (OCT), intravascular ultrasound, (IVUS), fractional flow reserve (FFR), and angiography. Intravascular OCT, IVUS, and FFR are invasive catheter-based systems that collect optical, ultrasound, and pressure data, respectively, from inside blood vessels or with respect to a sample of interest. Angiography is a noninvasive x-ray imaging method that collects data from outside the body during injection of a radio-opaque contrast fluid.
Early OCT, IVUS, and FFR systems were typically single-purpose and incorporated only one of the three modalities. Each independent system was typically configured as a portable cart. If more than one modality was to be used during an interventional procedure, this approach had the significant disadvantage of increasing clutter in the catheterization lab and requiring time-consuming set-up procedures. More recently, diagnostic systems have begun to incorporate IVUS and FFR or OCT and FFR on the same console. “Integrated” IVUS and FFR systems have also been developed, where control devices and catheter interface devices are located in the procedure room, while data acquisition devices are located remotely in a control room. Such dual-modality, integrated systems reduce clutter and reduce the total cost for diagnostic equipment.
Unfortunately, existing integrated IVUS and FFR diagnostic systems suffer from various limitations that reduce their utility. One limitation is that existing integrated IVUS and FFR systems do not incorporate OCT imaging. OCT provides order-of-magnitude improvements to image resolution compared to IVUS. OCT also enables more accurate plaque characterization, quantitative lesion measurements, thrombus detection, visualization of stent malapposition and edge dissections, and assessment of stent coverage following implantation.
A second limitation is that existing integrated systems require a dedicated set of data acquisition and processing equipment to support each procedure room. This increases the capital costs associated with equipping multiple procedure rooms with diagnostic systems, leading to higher health care expenditures. This limitation is even more pronounced with OCT systems than with IVUS systems, since the optical and electronic hardware required for OCT imaging is significantly more expensive than that required for IVUS imaging.
Accordingly, a need therefore exists for a multimodal system and related devices that address these limitations.